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Sky Beasties!

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Jul 26, 2009
38
Hello pirates!

I'm back from a very protracted absence on the message boards and I have a few ideas about one of the more recent additions to the spiral: fishing!

Ever since Wizard101 got fishing, everyone has been talking about when Pirate will be getting that feature too. Check out some very informative posts on Swordroll's blog as well as many others if you want to hear more about the speculation over fishing in Pirate. However, I believe that fishing is not something that Pirate101 needs. Fishing already has a large presence in Pirate101 (Jonah Town for example) as well as many quests that require pirates to get fish, scallops, etc. from the skyways. That's why instead of fishing, I think what the skyways really need is... sky monsters! Inspired by a long tradition of historical pirates hunting "sea monsters" (whales and such) in the seas of the Caribbean and elsewhere, I think that pirates should be able to fight large sky monsters using your ships! It should be similar to the battle with Scylla, except rewards would be more similar to fishing in Wizard101. Maybe if crafting is ever introduced to Pirate101, hunting sky monsters could be a possible source of reagents as well.

Comment with your thoughts about testing your ship against sky beasties!

First Mate
Dec 13, 2009
431
Lordofwinter35 on Jul 30, 2014 wrote:
Hello pirates!

I'm back from a very protracted absence on the message boards and I have a few ideas about one of the more recent additions to the spiral: fishing!

Ever since Wizard101 got fishing, everyone has been talking about when Pirate will be getting that feature too. Check out some very informative posts on Swordroll's blog as well as many others if you want to hear more about the speculation over fishing in Pirate. However, I believe that fishing is not something that Pirate101 needs. Fishing already has a large presence in Pirate101 (Jonah Town for example) as well as many quests that require pirates to get fish, scallops, etc. from the skyways. That's why instead of fishing, I think what the skyways really need is... sky monsters! Inspired by a long tradition of historical pirates hunting "sea monsters" (whales and such) in the seas of the Caribbean and elsewhere, I think that pirates should be able to fight large sky monsters using your ships! It should be similar to the battle with Scylla, except rewards would be more similar to fishing in Wizard101. Maybe if crafting is ever introduced to Pirate101, hunting sky monsters could be a possible source of reagents as well.

Comment with your thoughts about testing your ship against sky beasties!
A battle? Fishing in Wizard101 is amazing, and I think it should be brought over instead.

Admiral
Jul 27, 2012
1196
What a great idea, Lord of Winter! (nice to 'see' you again, by the by ) I do enjoy fishing in Wizard101, and would be perfectly happy to have this translated into the Pirate side of the Spiral, but you do offer an intriguing suggestion.

From your words I immediately envisioned those splendid old maps that featured so many fascinating and imaginative sea creatures and monsters swimming through the seas pictured on the maps or in the marginalia (in fact, I have a book specifically about those Map creatures, mostly on Renaissance maps!) It would be splendid to encounter such as sky beasties, though I wonder if instead of fishing, such grand and dangerous beasties might be a monster encounter instead. Something like a Diskylos, but instead of a cave, he (or she) is cavorting through a skyway...

Commodore
May 31, 2009
894
*begins playing Jaws theme on a cello* This sounds like it could be fun! But KI would probably have to readjust some of the locations of search-and-collect items, and the paths of enemy ships and Skyway enemies (as in Harpies and Flying Turtles).

Now, these Sky Beasties shouldn't be too hard otherwise no one would want to attack them. They should be simple, but each should have a certain weakness. For example, say that one Sky Beastie is a smallish Water Dragon (Like a Chinese Dragon). Its weakness would be a glowing spot on its head. So it would try to protect that, but to attack your ship it needs to be facing it. So when it turns to face you, your ship blasts away!

I think that an additional button could be added. When you approach a Sky Beastie, this button pops up. It allows you to control when your ship fires its regular cannons. But there is a reset timer on it, just like the other 4. This function can only be used against Sky Beasties, and it disappears when you go out of range. A keyboard shortcut could be 5, since it's pretty easy to switch between 4 and 5.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
These Beasties could be located at the rim of each skyway, where there seems to be a 'drop off' into deeper skies. Instead of our ships doing the fighting, what you think of lowering a dinghy and go after them with a harpoon? If it sticks in, we got them. But if it falls out we have race back to the ship!

Admiral
Jul 27, 2012
1196
I was sort of imagining that when you encountered them, you had a choice of whether or not to engage (like a sigil for a dungeon). That way, if you came across a sky beastie by accident, you could choose whether or not you wished to battle it, particularly if you felt your level (or nautical level) wasn't up to it.

If you chose to engage, perhaps the battle would commence something like the ones we experience in the skyway tempests, with our ship firing upon the creature, and it responding aggressively. Like a ship to ship battle, it could come to the creature wrestling with our ship itself, and (like being boarded) we must go and battle the creature face to face (or more like humongous tentacle to sword, stinging nematocysts to spells, that sort of thing). But this, after all, mere imaginative speculation.

Ensign
Jul 26, 2009
38
All of these are wonderful suggestions! Now I want to try these out in the skyway for real! Now then, to continue speculating about these hypothetical sky beasties, what would defeating them give you? I assume that massive creatures in the sky don't have weapons or armor drops, and having ship gear on them seems far-fetched, so what drops would they have? Honestly, I would be fine with battling them just for the fun of it, but I wouldn't mind getting something from the battle too.

Admiral
Jul 27, 2012
1196
Oh, getting something from battle? I hadn't thought that far... I was just thinking of the beasties! But let me see, what about:

Pets! Some poor little creature of the skies could have been on the dinner menu of the monster and we save it from a terrible fate! Naturally, the little creature is full of love and devotion for its rescuer...

New weapons/armaments of various sorts! Sure, they aren't carrying them about (most likely), but:

Gracie: Captain, I wonder if the stings, the nematocysts, from that Man-o-War cnidarian we just defeated couldn't be used with a charge in a spark gun? That might well deter enemies.

You: Good idea, Gracie, though... ugh... all that slimy stuff to get through. And we'd better be careful so as not to trigger the stings when we harvest them.
**
Or:

Ratbeard: Look at this thick hide and scales on this monster! That'd be some fine armor made up for ye, Cap'n!

You: Eeew!

Ratbeard: Or we could just sell it. Might be a bit heavy for ye, after all, come to think of it.
**
Or (an idea from my book Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps):

Bonnie Anne: Captain, now that we finished battling the ziphius, I dinna ken what we should do about that huge sharp sword-thing on its back, but it looks... useful, somehow.

You: I was thinking of taking it to a shipwright, and having them add it to the ships' armor. Ha! Let those Vulture Pirates attack us now! They'll be sorry...
**

Kind of interesting in this book, too, that a lot of the sea monsters illustrated fly too. Hmm...